Toyota to dominate Parliament’s first day

Toyota’s announcement, made late afternoon on Monday, is likely to derail the government’s plans to focus the coming three days of Parliament on the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes.
Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Parliament is set to open for the new year in a fiery fashion on Tuesday, with debate to be dominated by Toyota’s decision to withdraw its manufacturing operations from Australia by 2017 and the prospective end of the local carmaking industry.

Toyota’s announcement, made late afternoon on Monday, is likely to derail the government’s plans to focus the coming three days of Parliament on the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes.

Labor has already made clear it will blame the government for Toyota’s decision, with opposition leader
Bill Shorten
describing it as “inevitable once the Abbott government was elected".

If the opposition moves a censure motion against the Prime Minister, it will be the third time in the current parliament it has done so. The last time was on December 12, when Mr Shorten sought to censure Mr Abbott for “doing nothing as Holden leaves Australia after 65 years".

The opposition does not have the numbers in the lower house to successfully pass a censure motion, meaning the move would be a purely tactical one.

There are scant few bills up for debate in the lower house this week, with much of the action due to take place in the Labor-Greens dominated senate.

Leader in the senate and workplace relations minister
Eric Abetz
will attempt to highlight Labor’s links with alleged union corruption by bringing forward debate on a government-sponsored bill on reviving the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The bill is currently subject to a Senate inquiry, and cannot be further debated until the inquiry reports in March.

The abolition of the carbon tax and its associated bills is listed as the first order of business for the Senate, with debate on that subject likely to continue for the entire first week of sitting.